Since yesterday I’ve been asked by several people who my trainer is. His name is Bash (here’s his instagram feed), and it’s not an exaggeration to say that he really turned my health around. I talked yesterday about being intimidated by exercise, but let me elaborate: I wasn’t just intimidated, I was overwhelmed. Walking into a gym meant confronting every body issue, every childhood instance of being bullied, a lifetime of being told and believing that I wasn’t capable of being physically strong. And yeah, when I was a kid, I had terrible knees, and that didn’t help. PE class hurt, and not in that “oooo, my muscles are burning so good” sort of way.
Hey, though, my knees still hurt — the difference now is that I push through because I know I can, because I know that my limits, and my ability to grow, have not been maxed out. And having had a taste of what I can achieve with my body, I want to keep pushing myself for more. It feels like magic sometimes.
But if I’d started out with a coach who wasn’t quite the right fit, it would have taken me a lot longer to get to this point. I got lucky with Bash. He recognized that I was not advanced in…shall we say, the ways of the Force (my athletic midichlorian levels were almost nonexistent), and so, like a good Jedi, he started out small, but persistently kept pushing me to do more. Like a Ben Kenobi, as opposed to being trained by Darth Sidious.
It’s the little wins, guys. I can’t run worth shit, and my plank positions still look more like trembling triangles than sturdy flat lines, but hey! Progress!
***
In the comments of an earlier blog post, James asked: I’ve just received Monstress, Issue #8 and devoured it–sorta like the Monster, I suppose. The story and artwork simply never get old. I wanted to inquire as to how the artwork’s done. Is it done traditionally, paper/pencil/ink–maybe Chinese stick ink? Or is it done digitally?
I’ve sat beside Sana while she sketches with pen and paper — and it’s honest-to-god a thing of beauty, watching her pencil. She’s so effortlessly amazing. But Monstress is completely digital.
Here’s a sketch she made while we were on tour after SDCC.
Beautiful, right? Wait until you see #10, out in a couple weeks. My author copies just arrived.
***
Finally, Happy Valentine’s Day! Every day is Valentine’s Day, if we’re talking about celebrating each other, and being grateful for love. Love and friendship and family, and the blessings of all of these things.
I saw this image…I thought at first it was a hoax, but I researched, and it seems to be real. It’s a photo from a 1972 excavation in Iran. The 2800 year old couple, male and female, were likely asphyxiated during a fire (the hole in the skull came from the dig), and yes, it looks like they’re kissing. Or at least, holding each other, right to the end.
Waaaaaah.
